Christmas Bizarre

This is going to be a bizarre post...about Christmas...the one that I'm pretending wasn't 9 months ago as I type.  We made a family decision to start staying home Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  Christmas Eve was full of prep, the Christmas Advent at Church (we provided a sheep and an angel!), a lovely neighborhood party at the Alston's, and taming the excitement of two precious children.

Christmas Day, we actually slept in!  We did stockings with the kids (a few understated items actually in their stockings), had breakfast, and continued with presents.  That didn't take very long, of course, so we dressed to go visit Miss Helen.  Miss Helen is our dear, dear friend at church who loves our children as much as we do.  She keeps the nursery every other week and has had them over a few times when I needed help, so they know her well.  Dear, sweet Helen lost her husband several years ago and keeps 3-yr-old Charlotte all week for her neighbors.  My children being with Miss Helen is a win-win for all, so we visit when we can. 

Far too much time has passed for me to do anything organized with Christmas pics, so here on the ones from my phone that I am just now downloading.

Her favorite way to sleep, with her favorite Bible.

She looks happy to be riding the Short Pump train in Richmond, doesn't she??

Now THAT'S a kid happy to be riding the train with Emily!

Loving the chairs from Dody and Granddaddy.

Since the basement was finally finished, we put together Daddy's trains from when he was little.

Christmas Snow:)

Flashlight

Whoa, Hotwheels

Stroller

Dad's New Plane

"Mahgrit!" & Adventures in Advent

Like clockwork, Margaret starting talking all the time around her 2nd birthday.  But of all the babble we would receive all day, she absolutely refused to say her name!  When prompted, "Can you say, 'Margaret'?", she would blatantly giggle in our faces and pronounce, "Nope!" and gallop away.  But finally, on this December day, she decided to declare, "Mahgrit!".  And boy, did she enjoy her reaction:) 

Andrew continues to insist on 7-8 verses of Sunshine every night.   “God and Jesus” have to be the last one...he came up with that verse, and he insists on it.  How to turn that down? 

We've been reading our Advent book nightly, which Andrew remembers quite well.  He has been teaching Margaret about how we take turns opening each door every night and reading the parts of the Christmas story that we find there.  Margaret has taken to knocking on the doors each day before she opens them.  What a hoot!  I am not surprised.  That is so her. 

 

We were asked to light the Advent Candle this week at church.  What an honor.  And what a joy that the kids sincerely enjoyed preparing for our reading, followed their instructions for helping with the candle and hanging our chrismon on the tree, and were on their best behavior. 

 

Listening dutifully as we prepare (i.e. Ben Thompson was practicing with my camera).

Yes, I am very, VERY pregnant.

 

I.

Love.

These.

Kids. 

Wonder who will be next?  Won't be long now!

Breakfast with Santa at Boar's Head Inn

Last year I had wanted to check out Breakfast with Santa at the Boars Head Inn.  Something happened and that didn't happen so this year I was determined.  I had us all signed up on the same day with friends, then had to reschedule on account of the Sip N See hosted here for Kendall and Sam (DEFINITELY worth the reschedule!).  Only trouble was, Daddy ended up being "indisposed" for the weekend.  I'll spare the details here of why, but the three (and a half) of us still went.  No pictures of the fancy breakfast as 9-month pregnant Momma was working HARD to keep pancakes, bacon and juice in abundance on the table!  I'm glad we did it, but I think we'll try something else next year.  At least they got on the carriage ride - some kids did not, after spending 30 minutes in line!

 

Thanksgiving in Baltimore

We spent Thanksgiving in Baltimore this year.  Grandma was our photographer (I'm not sure our camera made it out of the case) which was great, except I'm not sure she made any of the pics!  We took the kids to the Baltimore Zoo and toured the train exhibits around town, which Baltimore does quite well.  We visited the Fire Museum there for the first time.  An impressive Museum, I must say!  We focused on the trains this time, but will definitely be back for the Museum, filled with dozens of old, antique fire engines.  

 

David, 16 already!

Just love it.

"Jackie", Andrew, Daddy, and Maddie

My love

My angel

Fun at the zoo

Lion faces!

Fun with my sweatheart:)

What a smile

Cuddling with the belly

Grandma's is so fun, it's exhausting!

LOVING the fire museum

"Andoo" has a hat, so I must have a hat, too!

What eyes!

Driving the fire engine

Intently watching the trains

Ellie!

Play dough and the beginnings of Gingerbread House 2012, aka, "The Whoopsie Doodle House"

Sunset on the dock

Teaching Margaret how to decorate properly.

Feeding the ducks, just seconds before "the fall".  Apparently Andrew was challenging himself to throw the bread even further when he simply stepped right off the dock!  I was shocked to see him coming back up to the house fully clothed and soaking wet, but he took it like a champ.  We still joke about why he wanted to go swimming at Grandma's on TG!  We decided we would wait until summer to swim again:) 

Watching the game

Warming up after his own polar plunge!

Handsome:)

Maddio!

Halloween!

Oh, what fun Halloween is when you have little ones!  Before I had even thought about Halloween costumes for the fall, I spotted a 2T Ladybug at a consignment sale for $5.  It took less than 5 seconds to decide that Margaret would be a ladybug this year:)  A few weeks later, we asked Andrew what he wanted to be.  Without skipping a beat, he said he wanted to be a football player and that he wanted to be a cheerleader. Of course!  Why hadn't I already thought of that!  But since Margaret was already covered, we somehow talked him out of that and he said he really, really, really wanted to be Buzz again.  And since his Buzz outfit from last year still fit...done deal!  The $5 Halloween was on! 

Saturday before Halloween, we went to a schoolmate's party and carved our two big pumpkins.  Down a pig tale and with knife in hand, Margaret was pretty scary, but fairly helpful:)


While I was at work on Sunday, Michael helped them carve their little pumpkins that we had gotten at the Greenfield Farm the day before, where we had a great hayride in a HUGE tractor, a fun stroll through the corn maze, saw lots of farm animals upclose, enjoyed neat slides and spider webs, and also forgot to take the camera.


Andrew looks a bit like Tony Soprano here and Margaret seriously looks stoned, but we had two cute little jackolanterns to show for it and Michael promised me they actually had fun!

Think they were excited?!?



Excited to be dressed and ready to head across the street for the neighbors' annual Halloween Open House - chili, beer and hot dogs. Yum, yum!

Learning how to Trick or Treat...and always say "Thank you" and "Bye-Bye" after receiving candy:)



Andrew showing Margaret the ropes.



Margaret, as if to say, "Hey!  It works!"



 

 

Back from Trick or Treating, it was time to teach Margaret how to pass out candy at our house.  

 



Margaret very concerned about the Mum trying to grab her personal space.


Making funny faces with Daddy is the fun part!

 

And after all of the excitement, the night ended surprisingly well.  Margaret dutifully went to bed and Andrew headed up when it was time with zero complaints...and only ONE piece of candy all night!  He seemed to buy our argument that if he ate only one piece now, there would be a piece a day for him to eat for a very, very long time!  I'll admit we were patting ourselves on the back for getting that one to fly with a 4.5-yr-old!